AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

GENEROUS OFFER BY MR W. C. BUCHANAN. AN ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTED. SHORTAGE OF FUNDS. WELLINGTON, August 31. Some interesting remarks on the subject of agricultural development were made when a deputation waited on the Hon. T. Mackenzie ( Minister of Agriculture) this afternoon. The deputation represented the local bodies and the A. and P. Association of South Wairarapa, and was concerned about an offer. by Mr W. C. Buchanan, M.P. for the district, to give a large sum of money towards the establishment in Wairarapa of an experimental farm. Mr D. P. Loasby (Mayor of Greytown) apologised for the absence of Mr Buchanan, who considered that as the. person -making the offer he should not be present on such an occasion. Mr Hogg, M.P., wa~B also unavoidably absent. The main question they had to bring forward was a most liberal offer made by Mr Buchanan to the Government, of a sum of £5000 to buy land and £1000 for stocking an experimental station in Wairarapa on one condition — that a farm should be established in Mr Buchanan's electorate, south of the Waingawa River. "We look upon this," said Mr Loasby, "as a most generous offer, and one -which, if do&sible, should be acted upon. We feel that it is to the moneyed people of New Zealand that we must look for help over our difficulties, and if they are encouraged to give us "of their wealth for the benefit of the district in which they live, and the Dominion generally, it is a etep in the right direction." They understood, he added, that this was the first offer of the kind which had been made to the Government, and they hoped the Government would be able to see its way to accept it and establish a farm in the Wairarapa. Mr H. R. Bunny pointed out that this was an offer of £6000 to establish an experimental farm. The land purchased need not be very expensive. It would need to be second class land so as to show those who took up that class of, land the "best way to work it. He believed that the purchase might -be so made that half of the area could be set i aside for experimental purposes, and the ; other half utilised so as to provide i against the loss on the' experimental por- i tion. Money would be well spent by j the Government in showing the _ small i fanner how to work his land to the best ! advantage. He felt sure that if-, the • offer made by Mr Buchanan was ac- • cepted a great deal of benefit would . accrue to the small farmer. ! " I recognise," said the Minister in ! reply, "that the offer made by Mr j Bschanan is a most generous one. It ; has been eaid that the matter is one of | £s. d., and that is the case. It was. ' he remarked, pointed out that they would require an area of about 400 acres, which ! it was estimated would cost about £15 ' an acre. Buildings and stocking would , bring the total cost up to about £12.500. The cost of upkeep, deducting credits, I would be about £2225 a year. At the ; present time the Government had no ' money to spare. The offer was a sDlen ; did one, but it only covered half the ! initial cost. The object was to help the i small farmers, who, he agreed, were ' largely the backbone of the country. At anyrate they assisted materially. The establishment of a dairying experimental farm- in the Wairarapa looked like what the Government had already established not far away. They had at Weraroa an establishment that was now doing good work, and the Government was adding considerable stock at its own cost, and was also increasing its stud stock. Within the lest few weeks the department had purchased ten Holstein cows and ten heifers and eight Jersey cows, all of high reputation, and it was also about to purchase a number of bulls of reliable milking strains. The denartment had also a herd at Ruakura, and lit seemed to him that they had reached the time when they should go in for specialisation. If they established another farm of the same description in the Wairarapa it would mean perhaps no widening, of experience and a large expenditure in addition to Mr- Buchanan's generous offer. They could not help feeling that in making such a generous offer Mr Buchanan had the righ' to stipulate his terms, but one could not help feeling that it would have been of much wider usefulness if he had given the Government the monej or even half of it for specialising purposes. They had erected splendid appliances at Weraroa for carrying on dairying work, and to establish another similar institution would look like neglecting their opportunities. Of course, if the offer could be accepted without a great sacrifice of money he should be glad to recommend that it be accepted, but he knew that the responsible officers of the department did not favour that view. It was regrettable that the department had not sufficient money to bu> stock. He (the Minister) was * doing all he could with the money at his disposal, and was adding to the herd at Weraroa, but it took such a long time to furnish the bulls that the dairy farmers required. It would be a great help if they could eet * money for that purpose. They were told that in the dairying herds of the Dominion one quarter of the cows did not pay for their feed, and only about half the ' cows showed a profit. If the Government had more money to carry out a system of testing and to give small farmers the use of reliable bulls from milking strains it would be greatly to their benefit. " Even if v.c only had £1000," said the Minister. " I am sure we would do wider good than by establishing a State farm in the Wairarapa,

whatever might be done later on." An- ' other thing that he thought might be the subject of experiment was the growing and testing •of grasses and cereals. Good work had been done in that respect in Canada and America, and excellent results had been obtained. Then there was the question of growing seeds for our own people. That had been almost absolutely neglected. He had had tests made of seeds procured by the department from merchants in New Zealand and compared the prices charged. One sample germinated 93 per cent., and another 92 per cent., but the price charged for the former was over 100 per cent, greater than that charged for the latter. It would be a good thing if Mr Buchanan would entertain the idea of establishing a farm for the purposes of seed culture and testing. "It is a coming problem," he added. " They have done so much in older countries, and we are so far behind." Another idea of his was in connection with agricultural instruction. . " We-, have . no money," he remarked, "to send competent teachers abroad to find out what other countries have discovered, and we are fumbling away here, probably 25 years behind them. If we had money to send some of these good men to these up-to-date institutions in other countries to study there for two or three years and then come back with that accumulated knowledge and instruct' others, I am sure an enormous amount of good would be done. Time is so valuable in these matters. We have not time to wait to foozle along for years and years and find out what has been found out in other countries, or how to breed the best stock." There was also the question of providing accommodation at some of the State farms for instructing the young men of the Dominion in farming. It was the great industry of the country, and" yet, as everyone knew, there was no place to which a young man could go to work with any certainty of being instructed in farming. " What about the Lincoln College?" asked a member of the deputation. " The young man gets a lot of theory there, and no doubt^they do their best,"' said Mr Mackenzie. " I want to see famore practical work done. I want to see a farm of thousands of acres under a practical man, and the young men turned out practical farmers, besides fretting the lectures as at present." The scientific instruction at Lincoln College at present overrode the practical. He j was endeavouring to have established ■ some institution to which the young felj lows (many ,of whom are now looking ; for Government billets) could be sent to jbe trained as practical farmers. At orej sent the Government had not money . enough to establish such institutions. ,He thoroughly appreciated , Mr Buch- , anan's offer, and he would place the j matter before his colleagues. > " If." he remarked in conclusion, j " Mr Buchanan can see his way to allo.v 1 his generous offer to be used for special- ! ifiing in seed culture he will confer a ! very great benefit on the agriculturists of the Dominion. To my mind a scood i farmer is not necessarily the man who : has made money in agricultu 1 - He may have harried the soil, robbed the land, and made it poor for his successor, but , any man who leaves behind him better j seed and cleaner fields and richer soil j and a knowledge of wider systems and more economical methods of management '< does for agriculture .and the race a noble ! service, and I should be glad to know i that Mr Buchanan contributes his quota j to such a service."